The Bay to Breakers Centipede

The annual Bay to Breakers race is one of the biggest events in San Francisco.  The 12K race offers big prize money to attract some of the best road racers in the world, and a great overall scene for serious runners, to joggers, to walkers, then finally to party goers.  All throughout there are creative costumes, and um a few people with no clothes on at all.  Last year I ran the 100^th annual race – which was first known as The Cross-City race.  Having raced 3 previous times (and joined the party a few times before that), I was still missing out on a very unique twist to the competition - The Centipede!

In 1978 a group of 13 guys from the Aggies running club said “hey let’s enter the race and see how fast we can run tied together” (or something like that).  After that the centipede division was born.  The Aggies have run every year since, although recently a group of mostly Bay Area Track Club runners sponsored by Linked In has stolen the show setting new centipede world records. 

I always wanted to run a ‘pede.  My West Valley teammates had discussed in the past, but never found the numbers to field the 13 members.  This year, with our ranks of open male runners growing, we finally got everyone on board and entered a centipede!  

It took a bit more planning than showing up for a normal race.  With 13 guys there was a fairly wide range of running abilities.  So we had to determine the right paces to run and have people communicate throughout the race.  Also there was the gear.  Turns out you can’t just show up at your local running store and ask for standard “centipede gear” so each team gets creative.  We bought some clipping nylon straps to wear as belts, with 4 foot carabineer bungee cords. 

*6am meeting spot

The race was an absolute blast.  People were soaking up the festive atmosphere, and chatting with various other runners we knew who were running near our group.  The bungees gave us a margin of error if you strayed too far out of our zig-zag formation, but let the stronger runners assist the less fit up the hills (the steep Hayes Street Hill in particular). 

*Nick feeling tired on the rollers

A smartly planned race got us through the first two miles at 5:45 pace, next two which included most the hills at 6 flat.  Through Golden Gate Park, some of the stronger runners were working the hardest from pulling on the cords during the rolling hills at low 5:30s pace.  Then on the downhill last couple miles most people were ready to roll, and we ran 5:17 and 5:18 for the last two full miles – both downhill.  At the faster pace we had to be careful not to run over the photographers up on their ladders.  The finishing time was 42:11 for the 3^rd place centipede – a 5:40 average.  It was also cool that we were passing runners most the way - some people various ones of us knew, and others we chatted with along the way. 

*Rolling through the park

My first centipede is in the books.  I have the gear stored away, and can’t wait for next year! 

Various people posted pics on Facebook, and some were great.  There was even a random picture on Instagram which was the best of all – and I don’t even know what Instagram is other than the company that Facebook bought for a gazillion dollars. 

Here's the random Instagram shot... pretty good! 

Here is the Linked-In team running 36:44 (4:56 pace)

The Aggies

West Valley making the turn for home!

Post race pose